


Kisses (Taste of Tears)

by Lumelle



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Career Ending Injuries, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-12
Updated: 2016-12-12
Packaged: 2018-09-08 03:56:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,171
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8829544
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lumelle/pseuds/Lumelle
Summary: Things are not easy for Yuri and Otabek, because sometimes mutual affection is not enough to overcome the demands of their lives. In the end, though, they just might find their happy ending, or at least another beginning.





	

Their first kiss is half an accident, half an angered whimsy.

It happens after the Grand Prix Final, after Yuuri wins his gold and Yurio vanishes because he cannot accept third place, not now, not ever. Otabek is not the only one who goes looking but he is the only one who can find him, huddled in a corner and angry at everyone and everything but most of all himself. He knows Yurio well enough by now to approach him like one would a cornered animal, slow and clear about his intentions, reaching out his hand for Yurio to grasp but not making first contact.

Yurio is the one who draws him close, cups the back of his head and tugs him down, lips crashing into his in a mess of lip gloss and tears and probably some very unattractive snot. A moment later it is again Yurio who is pushing him away, rushing past him and out of sight, already convincing himself he has managed to ruin the one friendship he has ever had by demanding more of Otabek than was ever offered. Except Otabek still seeks him out later, not until the following day when he has cooled down a little, and though Otabek isn't smiling that's not exactly unusual for him.

They talk a lot over the next year, meeting up whenever competitions bring them to the same place, stealing moments between their respective training schedules to talk over the internet when they are apart. It's a new thing for them both, friendship, something they are still learning in their own ways, and while they have their arguments because Yurio is fierce and Otabek is stubborn, it is never something that cannot be solved by a few days of private fuming followed by halting, stuttered apologies that are quickly swept away so they can return to what has become ordinary for them.

Their next kiss is almost a year later, at Rostelecom Cup, and once again it is Yurio who starts it, high on triumph and the certainty of his spot in the finals. Otabek is the one who builds on it, though, soft, questing kisses that test them both in ways he barely dares voice. It is Otabek who comforts Yurio when he fails to place in the finals, puberty finally catching up with him in earnest and playing havoc with his carefully cultivated body control, and it is Yurio who fights to overcome his limits so he can meet Otabek soon again on the same ice, under the same lights, as they are meant to be. Neither ever says as much, though, afraid of where failure might lead them. There is too much to lose, still.

Failure makes them wait half a year before breaking apart the tentative thing they have built, the tender bond unable to withstand the pressures of separation and competition and doubt. Otabek never speaks to anyone of it, just as he never spoke to anyone of what they had, while Yurio skates his angriest season yet into his first Grand Prix Final gold.

They start speaking again, eventually, rebuilding the friendship they inadvertently broke in their rush for something more. Neither of them ever mentions what was, still too sensitive about the matter, and those around them learn very quickly not to bring it up either.

The ice is always there, always solid and supporting even when those sliding upon it are torn apart by idle thoughts and devious hearts, and Yurio is hailed as the next Victor Nikiforov even before the first one has truly been forgotten. After his first faltering steps he glides through puberty as gracefully as he does one of his programs, emerging from it stronger and more controlled in ways some had thought impossible for him. He still has his temper, of course, and he still occasionally says things that hurt even those who are used to his sharp tongue and kitten claws, but the Yuri Plisetsky who dances upon the frozen waste has grown from a prima ballerina to a spirit of the ice, fey and otherworldly and captivating. Otabek watches him, and so does the rest of the world, and for a time it seems nothing can stop either of them.

Yurio is twenty when he shatters his ankle, pushing himself beyond his limits until a bad landing breaks it beyond repair, and while he will recover in time he can never return to the ice, not as he wishes to be there. He disappears almost instantly, dropping out of sight and reach, and even the other Russian skaters either don't know or won't tell where he has gone.

That year Otabek skates to the theme of "farewell", and ends the year with the announcement of his retirement. Few of his friends are surprised.

He arrives in Hasetsu two weeks later, all solemn expression and gleaming bike, and rather than ask for directions he drives around until he finds the resort run by Yuri's parents. They unfurl his mess of monotonic English and halting Russian, point him in the direction of the ballet studio, rather than the ice rink. Hasetsu is growing again, or so he has heard, more people are choosing to stay rather than move to bigger and better places as tourists revitalize the community, drawn in by the legends of men who split the ice with their skates and melted frozen hearts.

Yurio is teaching as Otabek arrives, voice sharp but not unkind as he directs the little children under his instruction, hands surprisingly gentle as he repositions little arms and legs. The children all listen to him intently, little faces as serious as Otabek imagines he was at their age, and as the lesson ends they all swarm Yurio for their promised cat-shaped stickers.

Yurio yells at Otabek when he spots him, of course, calls him an idiot and a fraud and tells him to leave and never come back. Otabek has given up the ice, after all, by choice rather than by force, and that is a choice Yurio cannot understand, cannot accept. Otabek stands still in the face of his abuse, never faltering, never moving. Only once Yurio has quieted down, drawing deep breaths and no doubt looking for more words to insult him in any of the many languages they have both worked to learn to at least some degree, does Otabek reach out a hand in offering.

This time Otabek hopes they might build something more permanent, something that will drive away the shadows haunting Yurio's eyes and actually earn him the smile Yuuri's mother gives him as he is welcomed into their circle just as Victor and Yurio had each been accepted in turn. Yurio makes no promises just yet, doesn't speak of the future and barely even of the present, but his grip is still strong even as his lips taste like tears, so perhaps it will be all right.

It is only later that Otabek notices the cat sticker stuck to his jacket.


End file.
